


The Witching Hour

by TheCookieOfDoom



Category: Warcraft (2016)
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, Drabbles, F/M, Falling In Love, M/M, Poetry, Requitted Love, Unrequited Love, quotes, too late
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-01 20:41:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8637343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCookieOfDoom/pseuds/TheCookieOfDoom
Summary: This is a collection of short drabbles that stemmed from last-nights spontaneous inspiration/motivation. It's based on various quotes I find, and I'm always accepting prompts.





	1. The Most Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> Mostly this is just to let you guys know I'm not dead, but I am on a hiatus until I can get my shit together (has nothing to do with those anons, I just have a lot going on irl rn)  
> I can say that when I do come back, though, I'll have a brand spankin new story for you
> 
> if you have any quotes you think would be good inspiration, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do!

"Khadgar, why do the best people die?" Anduin asked, voice hoarse and cheeks stained with tears as he looked up at the tired old mage. Khadgar hugged the teen close, smiling down at him sadly. 

"When you're in a garden, which flowers do you pick?"    
"... The most beautiful ones." 

"There's your answer."


	2. Just Friends

Khadgar and Callan were friends. They laughed together, they cried together. They were just friends when Khadgar started dating Lothar. They were just friends when they stayed up all night, talking about everything and nothing. They were just friends when they smiled at each other across the table, legs brushing against each others beneath it. They were just friends when Lothar proposed, and he became Khadgar's best man. They were just friends when a year later, Lothar gave Khadgar his ring, smile sad and eyes stormy. "Just friends don't look at each other like that." They knew they were never 'just friends' when Lothar refused to attend his own sons wedding.


	3. Wrong

Khadgar remembered the way his heart shattered when Lothar chose Garona over him. He knew it wasn't really like that; he was barely more than a kid, and she was a beautiful woman, as well as Lothar's age. Khadgar surely would have done the same in Lothar's place. But it still hurt to see them together. He'd withdrawn, hidden himself away and buried himself in books so that they wouldn't see just how much he was hurting, and so that he could properly deal with it. 

They hadn't even noticed he'd been gone. That hurt even more. Then Garona left. She left Lothar devastated and heartbroken. So Lothar did what he did best; he hid his pain and drowned it out, finding solace in the bottom of a tankard, and Khadgar was left to pull him out of it. It had been a long time. He'd matured, physically at least. He knew he was attractive, and Lothar must have thought so too, because he came onto Khadgar without a second thought. And Khadgar's heart broke all over again when he had to shake his head and push Lothar away. Lothar wasn't wrong to want him, he was wrong to want Khadgar and think he could have him, now that it was convenient for him.


	4. Lost Part 1

Khadgar was spiraling. He knew it. He'd known it for months. He’d known it since he stolen out of Stormwind in the middle of the night. He needed... he needed... he didn't know what he needed. He just knew he wouldn't find it in Stormwind. What he needed, if it even existed, was far from the shining jewel of the Alliance. It wasn't until he was left to spiral down farther and farther, left for months to lose himself, that he realized what he needed. He needed to not be okay. He needed to be the child he never was, not the adult he was forced to be. He needed to stop bottling everything up, to not put on the mask of a brave face and act like he wasn't shattering inside. He'd finally discovered what he needed, and now he could return home. 

He should have never returned to the only home he'd ever known. He had been replaced so easily. Replaced as mage consul, even his place at Lothar's side had been taken by another. Suddenly, he was lost again. Lost in the midst of the one place that had always felt familiar. That was when it occurred to him: all those months he was gone, they never came looking for him.


	5. Lost Part 2

When Lothar woke to the absence of Khadgar, he hadn't been concerned. When he hadn't found the mage sequestered away in the library, he still hadn't been concerned. In fact, it had taken a month and a trip to both Dalaran and Karazhan before worry made a home in Lothar's chest. Amidst the chaos of so much death and war, Lothar could understand Khadgar needed to go away, needing some time alone to get a grip on everything. It was too much pressure to put on such a young man. But he had thought Khadgar would come back soon. They still needed him,  _ Lothar  _ still needed him. 

When one month became two, then three, Lothar was beside himself. It was all Taria could do to keep him in Stormwind, and not off scouring Azeroth for his wayward mage. It was just like with Medihv; suddenly, his mage was just gone. Lothar swore to himself that when he found Khadgar--because he  _ would  _ find Khadgar--he would never let the mage leave his side again. 

With Khadgar gone, another mage consul was needed. Lothar didn't like this one nearly as much. He was a stuffy scholar with no sense of humor, and refused to so much ad twang a rule, let alone break one. Lothar had never missed Khadgar more. 

He was there when Khadgar finally returned after 8 months, already walking over with a joke about having a baby half formed on his lips. Then he saw Khadgar turn his back on the city. He froze in his tracks, eyes wide as Khadgar left them--left him--again. Instinctively, Lothar knew Khadgar would not come back this time.


	6. Sleep Away the Sadness of Today

Lothar knew what was happening right before his eyes, and he was helpless to stop it. He had seen it with Medihv years before. This was not exactly the same, of course, but it was close enough. "No-- Khadgar! Stay with me, mage."    
"I can't... I can't, I'm just  _ so tired _ ."    
"I know you're tired, but you can't sleep yet. Not until this is over."    
"Just... a little. I'm just going to rest for a little while..."    
Anduin shouted in frustration as Khadgar's eyes slipped close, shaking him violently in hopes of keeping him away. He forced the mage to swallow a mana potion, a health potion, a stamina potion. None of it work. He drifted farther and farther away, his pulse getting slower and slower. "No! Khadgar, you can't leave me-- not like this. I can’t go through this again." His pleas fell on deaf ears, Khadgar's body slowing until his pulse was so slow, so faint, it was barely there. His chest rising only a hair with each breath. And it was just like when he lost Medivh, his old friend going catatonic. Now it was the young man that had stolen his heart, finally unable to take the death and devastation he'd been subjected to for so long.


	7. Alone and Lonely

From a young age, Khadgar had always liked being alone. He would hide himself away in libraries, bury himself in books. The books were his friends, they always had been. They couldn't hurt him. They couldn't call him an overachiever or know-it-all or attention whore. They couldn't throw fireballs or ice shards at him, or call him slurs. They couldn't get jealous of him, or shun him. Being a lone was so much better. He was the best company for himself. He loved being alone, but he hated being lonely.

At the end of the day, all the books in Azeroth couldn't take away the bitter feeling of being unwanted. It couldn't take away the pain in his heart when his fellow mages got letters from home, where he had long since given up hope of even knowing who his parents were. He couldn't remember them anymore, not really. While the other novices would occasionally sneak off in pairs, armed with spells to mask noise, he tried to ignore the pain in his heart that no one wanted to come near the Guardian Novitiate, much less touch him. 

When he became Medihv's apprentice, he tried to lose himself in the library and think about how this vast bastion of knowledge and magic would one day be his, and not how it would be  _ only _ his. Only him, left alone to wither away in the tower. When he became the Guardian he would finally be left alone to do as he pleased for the rest of his life. He should be pleased; no more fellow students being needlessly cruel, no more masters telling him he could and couldn't do... No more worrying about whether he would ever find love, or if he would ever start a family. He would be alone, just as he wanted. And he would always be lonely.


	8. Refuge

Books had always been Khadgar's refuge. From the moment he learned how to read, he would crawl between the pages and hide himself away. He could fight alongside mighty warriors, sword in one hand, shield in the other. Or he could explore the temples of Uldum, desert sun hot at his back and sand like fire beneath his feet, the power of the titans all around him. Or he could be diving the depths of Vash'jir, fighting off naga. Whenever life became too much, he could always count on a good book to dry his tears with old pages. When he killed his master, and burned the fel from his body, he could no longer take refuge in his books. For the fel had taken something with it;  _ his eyes _ .


	9. Remember to Forget

Khadgar's dreams used to be haunted by a piercing blue eyes, back when he was younger. Little more than a kid, really. Then he'd grown a little older, a little more experienced, and it wasn't just those eyes that haunted him. It was his smile, his scent--leather, tangy armor polish, and home--his touch. The feeling of his beard when they kissed, his hands in his hair, twisting the strands idly. For years, he was haunted. Then after his death, he was  _ tormented _ . 

It has been so long. So many decades. Khadgar found himself trying to remember if Lothar's eyes were the same blue as they sky. Or maybe the ocean, endless and full of untold secrets. Or maybe the dark shale of a cliff face. He told himself he would stop thinking about it, stop trying to remember. He was only hurting himself, torturing himself. He tried to hard to remember, but there was nothing. He could no longer remember Lothar's hands on his skin, or Lothar's lips on his, or Lothar's hair beneath his hand, or his scent--he told himself he could, sometimes, when he walked past soldiers polishing their armor. But it was never exactly the same. The last memory go to had been the color of his eyes. Were they ever really blue? Khadgar had been so sure, but he just couldn't remember... 

He had finally remembered to follow through with the promise he'd made to himself when he was only 26 years old. He had finally remembered to forget.


	10. Meant to Be

Some things were just meant to be. They were lynchpins in the fabric of the universe, and they would always happen, in every universe. Khadgar would always end up without his family before he turned 13. He would always be adopted when he was 17, or run away, and somehow end up with Medihv. He would always meet Lothar before he was 18, and pine hopelessly for the man. He would always watch Medihv die; sometimes by his own hand, sometimes by something he'd caused, unknowingly or not. Some people were meant to be, as well. Durotan and Draka, their souls intertwined and laced together until it was impossible to tell which one belonged to who. Llane and Taria were meant to be together as well, their love the kind that was once in a lifetime. Twice, if you were lucky. Khadgar had thought he and Lothar were meant to be, as well. And maybe, in some universe, they were. But as he walked into the Lion's Pride Inn to find that Lothar was not alone as he’d expected, his body twined with that of Garona’s, he knew that this universe was not one of them.


	11. To Be A Star

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright this wasn't supposed to be angst, but it happened anyway

Khadgar used to wonder what it was like to be a star. Hanging so bright in the sky, shining and beautiful, always. Admired from earth and every other inhabited planet in the universe. Stars were never alone, always surrounded by each other. He wondered what that was like, too, to never be alone. He was always alone. Even surrounded by people of all kinds, he was alone.   
He knew people became stars. As much as someone could know something like that. When a star was added to the constellation of Leo, he knew it was true. He hoped he could be next to that bright star, the one so young that shone so bright.   
He would be with his star soon. He could feel it, already. His body, made of stardust, aching to return back to its home in the sky. To return to its other half in the stars, to be with its lion again.   
He wondered what it was like to be a star; soon, he would find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a little ambiguous. So if there was confusion, Khadgar was not made from a star, I read somewhere that people are made of star dust. And the star being added to Leo was of course Lothar because he's the lion 


End file.
